Doctoral Dissertation Research: College and Community Cultures and Upwardly-Mobile of Mexican-Origin Students

博士论文研究：大学和社区文化以及墨西哥裔学生的向上流动

• 批准号: 1738399
• 负责人: Cynthia Feliciano
• 金额: $ 1.19万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1738399&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; College; Community

For students from low-income and working-class backgrounds, the process of upward mobility involves adopting perspectives or developing practices that contrast with the perspectives and practices of their communities of origin. The objective of this study is to understand how college, family and community cultures interact to shape the experience of students as they transition to college. What role do students' racial/ethnic and community cultures play as they assimilate into the college and university culture and the middle-class? The methodology includes interviews with approximately 60 college students and observations of eight students, all of whom grew up in the same Mexican-American, working-class community. The interviews and observations will compare students who attend a moderately selective school with students who attend a less selective school. This study advances research surrounding the role that the university plays in reducing inequality. Given the rapid expansion of higher education and its greater accessibility to students from working-class backgrounds, this project examines whether what it means to belong to the middle-class differs across university contexts and the extent to which existing social class hierarchies are reproduced. Moreover, whether student engagement with their communities of origin varies across university selectivity also carries important implications as it relates to policies surrounding academic and student life on college campuses. Previous research finds that unlike their middle-class peers, working-class college students struggle to reconcile forms of speech, habits and practices associated with both their middle-class and working-class cultures. Previous research, however, has concentrated on the upwardly mobile college experiences of students attending elite or selective universities and, with few exceptions, has not generally assessed how culture rooted in students? racial-ethnic identity contributes to their assimilation into the middle class. This study draws on Bourdieu and colleagues? concept of habitus to understand how university, family and community culture influence Mexican-origin students' class habitus. Using semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this study takes a comparative assessment of the experiences of students from one working-class community who attended a moderately selective, flagship institution and students from the same community who attended a less competitive, local university. The lead researcher examines the role that race plays in mediating the way in which the university influences students? development of a middle-class habitus as well as whether university culture varies based on school selectivity and/or community contexts. The project pushes theoretical debates to move beyond assumptions that the middle-class culture of the university remains static across school selectivity and community contexts and to consider that understandings of what it means to belong to the middle-class likely vary across social contexts as well. Because this study also examines how university cultures help students build or break ties with their home communities, it carries important policy implications as it relates to how colleges structure academic curriculums and important aspects of campus and student life.

对于来自低收入和工人阶级背景的学生，向上流动的过程涉及采用观点或发展与其原籍社区的观点和实践形成对比的实践。这项研究的目的是了解大学，家庭和社区文化如何互动以塑造学生过渡到大学的经验。当学生吸收大学和大学文化以及中产阶级时，学生的种族/种族和社区文化扮演什么角色？该方法包括对大约60名大学生的访谈和八名学生的观察，他们在同一墨西哥裔美国人的工人阶级社区中成长。访谈和观察将比较参加一所适度选择学校的学生与参加较少选择的学校的学生。这项研究围绕大学在减少不平等方面所扮演的角色进行了研究。鉴于高等教育的迅速扩大及其对来自工人阶级背景的学生的更大可访问性，该项目研究了属于中产阶级的含义是否在大学背景下有什么不同，以及在现有的社会阶层层次结构中复制的程度。此外，在大学选择性上，学生与原籍社区的互动是否有所不同，这也具有重要的含义，因为它涉及围绕大学校园的学术和学生生活的政策。先前的研究发现，与中产阶级同龄人不同，工人阶级的大学生努力调和与中产阶级和工人阶级文化相关的言论，习惯和实践的形式。然而，先前的研究集中在参加精英或选择性大学的学生的上移动大学经历上，除了少数例外，通常没有评估文化如何植根于学生？种族与种族的身份有助于他们融入中产阶级。 这项研究借鉴了Bourdieu及其同事？了解大学，家庭和社区文化如何影响墨西哥 - 原始学生的班级习惯的概念。这项研究使用半结构化的访谈和参与者观察，对一个工人阶级社区的学生进行了比较评估，他们参加了一个适度选择性，旗舰机构和来自同一社区的学生，他们参加了一所竞争不太竞争的本地大学。首席研究人员研究了种族在调解大学影响学生的方式中所扮演的角色？中产阶级习惯的发展以及大学文化是否根据学校的选择性和/或社区环境而变化。该项目推动理论辩论超越假设，即大学的中产阶级文化在整个学校的选择性和社区环境中仍然保持静态，并考虑对属于中产阶级意味着的理解也可能在社会环境中有所不同。因为这项研究还研究了大学文化如何帮助学生与家庭社区建立或打破联系，所以它具有重要的政策影响，因为它与大学如何构建学术课程以及校园和学生生活的重要方面有关。